OK, massive financial awards for discovering how the Universe works.... yeah, what could possibly go wrong....
Researchers who helped detect gravitational waves for the first time, confirming part of Albert Einstein's theory in a landmark moment in scientific history, will share a $3 million Special Breakthrough Prize, according to the prize's selection committee.
The Breakthrough Prizes for scientific achievements were created by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner along with several technology pioneers, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-gravitywaves-prize-idUSKCN0XU10W
Oh, this is actually not so different to the Nobel, which was some reason I thought was much lower. Probably not that bad then.
ReplyDeleteLast time I saw that info, Nobel was around $6 mln.
ReplyDeleteThat's not bad, and neither are 3.
On the other hand, the Nobel can only go to three people. The breakthrough prize is being split among the entire LIGO collaboration (with 1/3 going to three people and the rest split more fairly). That seems significantly less terrible than the Nobel.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/science/ligo-gravitational-wave-breakthrough-prize-yuri-milner.html?_r=0
We'd be wise not to prolong the death of this current host of theories with prizes.
ReplyDelete